I Made Some Other Stuff

I have made some things lately. Gifts for my niece and for my friend. They both have their items, so now I can share.

I made this owl for my niece, Sophie, who turned 9 this month. She's two weeks older than Quinn.

This was my first attempt at Birthday bunting! My friend, Valerie, has two boys as well. I picked this color scheme so that she can use it for the entire family.

I made this bag with a zipper! I've done two zippers now. I cross-stitched a cupcake for her, and fashioned a keychain out of some cute buttons.

There are some things going on around here right now, so if I am slow to post, please bear with me. Everyone is healthy, so no worries.

Good Stuff in the Mail, Lousy Trip to the Post Office

I came home from a meeting after school, and a horrible trip to the post office. I really hate going to the post office. I have a package that I need to get in the mail. My meeting today ended early, at a quarter to five. I went to the closest post office I could find, before the post office closed. The parking was a mess-that should have been my first clue. I found a spot, grabbed my box, and headed inside. GIANT line. I suppose going before closing was not smart, but what's a working girl to do? I waited for 10-15 minutes, and never moved once, except for my impatience dance. It was as if the employees had all day to help people with their postal needs. I finally gave up. I will go tomorrow morning (I am not working-it's my day to stay home with sickie Quinn), to the little post office in Niles. It's so cute, and they were super helpful when I was asking about those ready to ship boxes. I have one of those boxes by the way. I thought I would save time, and I tried to print out a shipping label at home, but it took me 20 minutes before I successfully picked a username and password with enough capitals, lower case letters and numbers in it. Super irritating, then I didn't immediately see what I was looking for, so I will end up at the post office tomorrow anyway. Horrible. Why does it have to be so rotten at the post office? It's like that at the DMV too. Anyway, so I came home, irritated, but found that I had three packages!!!

1. My birthday present from my friend, Valerie! Look at all of the goodies! Owls and cupcakes! She made the cute box! Look at the Mickey bowl! Awesome stuff! Thanks Valerie!!

2. Piper and Arden got new hats! I ordered them from HERE.

3. Quinn's birthday present arrived from Amazon-it's a penguin Pillow Pet, but don't tell him. It's a surprise.

Before I go, here's a poem that Riley wrote for school today.

The Earth and the Environment

The Earth is very big,

The animals come in different sizes.

There are cats, dogs, cows, and pigs.

If I raise them, I might get prizes.

The Earth is in trouble,

We need to help.

The ocean has bubbles,

A dog gives a yelp.

Some Jewelry

We had a rough night last night. Quinn hardly slept at all. His stomach was bothering him all night, so he and I were on the couches, in the family room, until the wee hours of the morning, watching Victorious. I finally had to have Kevin switch with me, as I needed to be up kind of early, to take two of my students to see Tangled in 3D this morning. Quinn pretty much spent the day on the couch, and even slept for a few hours, this afternoon. He's had a fever off and on, and has been generally miserable with this cold/flu thing. Poor guy. Riley is not sick, so far, and he finished a book report for his English class. I worked on a few projects around the house, including a little sewing, and cleaning up my sewing area. I'm having some tension problems with my sewing machine. I just can't seem to get it right. I am ready to pull the plug, and buy a new machine-one with some sort of fancy automatic tension control.

I used the other set of Tessa Ann buttons I ordered, and made this bracelet.

I made a pendant from a button, a bail, and a scrapbook embellishment.

I made some other things too lately, but I'll have to show you those in a few days.

Catching Up

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's just been a little bit nuts around here. Work is just getting in the way of my social life-ha ha ha. Speaking of work, I had to leave work yesterday, for awhile, to go pick up a sick Quinn, and then wait for Kevin to get home so that I could return to work. Today was a lazy kind of Saturday, since Quinn was still a little under the weather. We all got to sleep in-but not as long as Kevin who was up all night last night, working-something about one of their computer systems crashing. My job this morning was to keep a certain dog quiet, as well as two boys. The boys were easy, but this dog loves to go outside and bark her silly head off. She doesn't seem to care if anyone wants to sleep.

One of Maya's cute moments this morning. She sure loves this boy.

I made this yarn heart today, using THIS tutorial. I've been obsessed with Pinterest, and while obsessing, I stumbled across that blog, and it is FULL of really great family crafts! I may let my students make these hearts. It was pretty easy.

I went to the thrift store today, and I found this awesome wall hanging. Isn't it cute? $2.00!! It says Monschau/Eifel at the bottom. I googled it, and it's from HERE. Pretty cool!

These are my mini Blythe dolls, hanging out. They are from Littlest Pet Shop.

Arden got a new outfit. It's from the Liv line of dolls. I had to cut the jeans off at the bottom, as Blythe is shorter than Liv, and Liv has bigger feet, so the shoes don't really fit. The dress/top and scarf, and bag are adorable though.

Have a great Sunday tomorrow!

Reading, Reading, Reading

It seems that everyone around the house is reading something.

Riley is reading the third book (the blue one) from this series by Suzanne Collins. My sister in law suggested it, and since Riley tends to like to read the same books over and over again, I was thrilled when he was interested in the first one, so I got him the other two! He finished the second one in a day. He's really liking them. He told me again tonight how much he likes them, so thanks to Wendy (my SIL)!

Quinn is reading the last Wimpy Kid book. He's another one that likes to read his books over and over again. He has lots of books on his shelf that he has yet to read. Quinn was up until after midnight over the weekend, reading!

I am reading the first Harry Potter, and also The Glass Castle. I am enjoying both of them. The Glass Castle is a memoir. I've wanted to read it for awhile, and now I am in a Facebook book club, and that's what we are reading.

Kevin is reading this book.

OH! I hung the kids' chameleons on the wall at school, but didn't take a picture. I'll try and get one tomorrow, but I will be out of the classroom all day-we get a 2nd grade release day to plan GLAD lessons, so we all have subs. If I can pop in there and not cause a HUGE ruckus, I'll get a picture. I'll have to do it during recesses or lunch as those kids will lose their heads if I walk in while the sub is there.

Mustache Fun

Quinn has this fascination with mustaches. While looking for invites for his birthday party, we came across a party pack of mustaches. 8 of them.


The next 7 he can use to perfect applying it straight. When not in use...


He just stores it on his door.


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Snow Day!

Today we took off for a day in the snow. We drove toward Truckee. Our intent was not to go all the way there. It was supposed to rain later in the day, and the weather there can be horrible. We had to go further than we expected, for snow, so we ended up visiting Truckee anyway. Truckee is about 30 miles from Reno, Nevada. There was lots of snow!

We pulled off the freeway, and found some random spot, to play in the snow for awhile. Maya's wondering what is going on?

There was sledding down hills.

And more sledding down hills.

There was also sitting on hills.

And brotherly love.

Maya loved the snow! We weren't really sure how she would react, but she loved it.

Aw. So cute!

Kevin playing with large pieces of snow at Donner Lake-we made a quick detour down to the lake, on our way toward home.

Donner Lake. Isn't it beautiful?

We also made a stop in Rocklin, so I could go to Stein Mart! We then headed into Roseville to eat at Ruby Tuesday, but too bad for us...they were closed for remodeling. Well poop. We drove on and ended up eating at Logan's Roadhouse in the Sacramento area. Days like these are always so great. We love to do a day trip someplace, and having Maya with us, was fun too. She traveled well.

To see the rest of our pictures, CLICK HERE.

Basketball Again

Last night was Scout night at the Warriors game. We had an extra ticket, so we took along my BFF's son, Sebastian. The game was so much fun. It was so interesting to watch the guys play, after watching the Stanford women's team play. The guys are so fast, and it looks so easy for them, not that the women weren't fabulous, just a different skill level. Amazing really.

The boys with some fake Warriors. See how much taller Sebastian is, than Quinn? He just turned 8. Quinn is quite small. And well, looks like Riley is too!

I don't think Quinn has a future in basketball.

This is the start of the game against the LA Clippers. The opening of the game was a lot like a show. They turned off the lights, played loud music, and even had a disco ball! It was super cool.

Three boys having a great time. Sebastian was really interested in the game. I think his parents need to get him involved in a new sport!

At halftime, there were over 100 Zumba dancers! It was kind of cool, and I think I might like to try a Zumba class. Looks like fun! Apparently it's quite a good workout too, according to the infomercial I watched today!

There are many time outs during the game, and for each one, there's some kind of entertainment. These guys came out-I believe they are called the Flying W's (?). They ran and bounced on those trampolines, doing flips and slam dunking the ball into the basket. Super cool!! Look at that guy in the air!

Oh, and we can't forget the Warrior Girls! They had about three outfit changes. We had an awesome time at the game. I hope we can go again some time.

This was Quinn's reaction to "At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors, for tonight's music lesson. He didn't like the song at all. I told him I don't like it either. 50's music does nothing for me. Remember to check out Kevin's year long project-there's a button/link on my sidebar.

Projects and Projects

I don't know where this week has gone. It's kind of a blur. It's been busy. Last night I was asleep on the couch at 8 and didn't wake up until 12:45 am when I finally went to bed. I've had a headache for 3 days. It finally feels like it's going away. I've also been quite dizzy-mostly in the mornings. I think I have some sort of inner ear thing going on. This morning I felt horrible so I called for a sub, made lesson plans, took them to school, and planned to stay home. Key word: planned. There was not a single sub available, so I stayed at school and operated children while dizzy with a headache. It was not that much fun. BUT, tomorrow is Friday, and I did get a very nice thank you card (and Starbucks card) from one of my student's parents today, thanking me for all that I do for her child-which is quite a lot as he's a bit of a challenge, but not at all like the gaggle of drama girls I have this year. That kinda made my day. I certainly felt appreciated, and we have made A LOT of progress with this kid's behavior.

Quinn had to make a heritage doll for school. It was due today. Yesterday we put the finishing touches on him. Quinn is Irish, Italian, English, German and Polish. He chose to portray his Italian heritage. So we created a doll in a fine, Italian suit. Oh and Quinn said every Italian has a mustache, so he drew one on.

At school we made these chameleons. Our story in Reading this week is "They Thought They Saw Him," about a chameleon who changes colors to avoid being caught. Our walls are looking mighty plain these days, so we did this project (given to me by Quinn's 2nd grade teacher last school year). I thought the kids would have a really hard time with it, but they did well. This one is mine. I'll post a picture of theirs when I get them hung up. Can you see that it's accordion folded? Here's why...

If you look at it from one direction, you see the blue chameleon.

If you look from the other direction, you see the red chameleon. It changes colors!! The kids were way impressed.

I gathered all of the snowmen the kids made together for a picture-well we are a few short. Some kids took theirs home, and two kids were absent and didn't get to make one, but you get the idea of what they look like together.

Oh, and here are the girls! I was playing with my Hipstamatic app.

Happy Friday tomorrow!!

Snowmen in California

Who says you can't build a snowman in my part of California? It certainly has been cold enough to snow lately! This morning, it was so cold that when I went out to warm up my car, and hose down the windows, the water was frozen in the hose. It's been cold!

We built these snowmen today at school! Socks, a rubber band, embellishments, stuffing, and beans for weight. As my students would say, "easy peasy lemon squeazy." They drew on the faces with Sharpie pens.

Aren't these two sweet?

Check out the one in the middle. That's quite a head! These are sitting on the kids' desks right now. I am not sure how long they will last before I get frustrated with the kids for playing with them, and send them home. I will see if I can round them all up for a picture tomorrow, before I end up sending them home.

It was cold again today, and Maya has done a lot of shivering. We put her sweater on, and also her scarf. She's cozy now.

I Sewed a Zipper!

I have been wanting to try to sew something with a zipper. Today, I decided to sew a little bag, with a zipper. It was super easy. I used THIS tutorial.

I am giving this bag to a friend at school, for her birthday. I have since added a red, plastic bird charm to the zipper as a zipper pull.

It's lined too! I think I will make some of these for everybody!

Derby Car Prep

We had a fairly lazy Saturday today. Quinn had a cutting workshop for his Pinewood Derby car, for Scouts. After that Kevin took him, and Riley, to the school. He threw the baseball with Quinn-in preparation for his baseball tryouts next weekend. He timed Riley running a mile-practice for his PE class. Meanwhile, I went to a quilt store to spend some Christmas money.

I think Quinn plans to paint his car gold. He sure came up with a wild design! I hope it's fast.

Finally It's Friday

Well, we all made it through the first week back from break. What an exhausting week. We went to dinner, and to Borders tonight so that the boys could use their Christmas gift cards.

The boys combined their cards to get this game. Nintendo Monopoly. It's all over the table currently.

Such concentration while playing. Apparently, neither boy needs to sit and play a game. There's a Mario looking on. There are a whole host of other Nintendo characters watching, but out of the camera view.

It seems Riley was winning. Quinn was not real excited about that. I don't think they ever finished the game though. Actually, I don't think they played by the real rules, because they have reset the game to "play for real" tomorrow. They frequently set games up and just move the pieces all around.

Look who's so sleepy.

No, wait. She's up! Look at those ears! She looks like a bat.

We have all set about our weekend positions.

Oh, and we had an earthquake today. Riley was home by himself. I would have been home if I didn't have to talk to my principal about the girl drama from today, which put me on the road home as the earthquake hit. I had just gotten to the school to pick Quinn up when Riley called saying he thought we had one. I had him turn on the local TV channel and then google search it, downplaying it so he didn't freak the freak out (I love that song BTW). He found it. I think he may have been a bit panicked, being alone, and that's why he called, but it was a small one, and he was just fine. Although now that we've had an earthquake, and it was a slow news day, that's all they are talking about on the local news: the big one, the Hayward Fault, having emergency supplies ready...... Riley actually left the room because it makes him nervous to "keep talking about it." He worries. I used to worry. A lot. Killer Bees, earthquakes, something happening to my parents (although I figured I'd just go live with the neighbor-she had only boys), getting lost, getting sick....So basically, I have NO idea where he gets all that worrying from.